The rain washed over the bluish-grey tiles, gathering between the ridges before rushing to the corners of the eaves and dripping down.
"After Jingzhe, as the weather warms up, the rain becomes more frequent. It's best to use lampblack rather than pine soot when grinding the ink."
"The air is humid on rainy days, as is the paper. Beginners using pine soot may find their ink drying out or difficult to control the water content, but lampblack is much easier to manage."
A faint scent of ink wafted through the room, mixing with the moist aroma of the rain outside, as if the rain was washing away not just the dust on the roof tiles but also the impurities within one's internal organs.
Liang Qu took a deep breath, dipped his brush into the ink, scraped it three times, and the fragrance spread across the rice paper.
Si Hengyi took his place behind Liang Qu.
Compared to his crawling progress two months ago, he had improved very quickly.
